“What’s important is to recognize that more and more and more and more of our behaviors occur online and often with the social media realm. And if companies are going to succeed in a chaotic, real-time environment, they need some mechanism – even a flawed one – to triage promotion and reaction. So yeah, Klout isn’t perfect. But instead of rehashing the same old “look how screwed up their formula is” argument, let’s focus instead on how advanced metrics will enable companies to deliver highly specific interactions with customers based on perceived influence.”

My take: Baer makes a good and valid point. But I think Baer and I might disagree on what the “big picture” is.

Baer’s definition of big picture seems to be “making sense of chaos.” My notion of the big picture is “making the right decisions.”

And, using my definition, what I see are marketers making questionable business decisions based on people’s Klout score.

The best example I can give you to demonstrate this is the bank that’s reserving the best spots in its parking lots for its customers with a high Klout score.

Let me state this is no uncertain terms, and aim it directly at the bank with which I do business:

If you reserve the best spots in your parking lot for some pimply-faced 25 year old (who spends too much time on Facebook and Twitter and has somehow managed to get himself a high Klout score) instead of for me, then I’m pulling my millions out of your bank.

If you think I’m kidding, try me. And I’ll also pull my kids’ accounts (they’re Gen Yers, btw — not little kids), too. THEN you’ll learn who has INFLUENCE. And when dear-old Mom and Dad (who turns 80 this year!), ask me to take over the day-to-day management of their finances, their money is getting pulled out of your bank, as well. THEN AGAIN you’ll learn who has INFLUENCE.

All because you made the bad decision to reward one group of customers over another.

Bottom line: The purpose of a business metric isn’t just making sense out of chaos — it’s taking action. And unless your customer base is made up of just heavy social media users, then making decisions on what to do based on Klout scores may lead to sub-optimal decisions.